Shua language


Shua, or Shwakhwe, is a Khoe language of Botswana. It is spoken in central Botswana, and in parts of the Chobe District in the extreme north of Botswana. There are approximately 6,000 speakers. The term Shwakhwe means people from the salty area.

Syntax

Unlike most Khoisan languages, but like Nama, the most neutral word order is SOV, though word order is relatively free. As with most Khoisan languages, there are postpositions. There is a tense-aspect marker ke which often appears in second position in affirmative sentences in the present tense, giving X Aux S O V order.
For example,
This marker appears first in certain subordinate clauses in a manner reminiscent of V2 languages such as German, where a clause-initial complementizer is in complementary distribution with a second position phenomenon.

Dialects

Shua is a dialect cluster.
The term Hietshware is used for varieties of both Shua and its sister-language Tshwa.
Tsʼixa is evidently a distinct language.